The invention pertains to lavatories. More particularly, the invention pertains to vehicular lavatories having an expandable volume.
Many actual and potential situations are known or may be imagined where a room, such as a lavatory, might be provided in an area where space is at a premium. For example, in corporate class jet aircraft it is often desirable to provide a forward lavatory for use by the crew. With the auxiliary lavatory, the crew would not be forced to intrude on passenger privacy en route to the standard passenger lavatory typically located in the aft section of the jet aircraft. However, as is commonly the situation aboard aircraft, space is very much at a premium in the forward area near the cockpit, and the space required for a full size lavatory in that area typically precludes the installation of a lavatory for the use of the crew.
Similarly, in other transport vehicles, such as campers and trains, where space is also at a premium, the volume required for a lavatory might otherwise preclude the installation of an additional or auxillary lavatory.
Furthermore, even on land, situations may be easily imagined where it would be desirabIe to include a lavatory where the space might be deemed insufficient.
It is known to provide double hinged doors for such functions as causing a door to open in a smaller space than a conventional door (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,791 to Chaumat et al (1981) entitled Folding Door or Like Closure Device) or to reduce the effect of a draft on an open door (see U.S. Pat. No. 821,201 to Taylor (1906) entitled Door, Window, and the Like.) However, it has not heretofore been known to employ multiply hinged doors to expand the effective volume of enclosure when the enclosed room is occupied.
Multiple edged windows have been provided in automobiles (see U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,299 to Holan 1930) and in locomotives (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,333,574 (Kaufman 1943) and 2,690,797 (Eriksen 1954)). Such hinged windows were provided to protect the head of a person who desired to look backwards or forwards the path of the vehicle from a position about the middle of the vehicle as an alternative to having the person's head dangle in free space.
It is not believed that doubly hinged doors have ever been provided aboard vehicles to reconfigure space distribution. Multiple hinged door apparatuses of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,412,871 by Clark (1946) merely provide retractable bus-type doors which retract to allow passenger ingress and egress, but do not reallocate space. Singly hinged doors have been provided to effect space distribution in U.S. Pat. Nos. 160,079 (Bridgman 1875) and 2,681,016 (Candlin 1954).
It is believed that there has never been heretofore provided a door apparatus which increases the essential volume of enclosure of a room when occupied. It is further believed that such an apparatus has in particular never heretofore been provided aboard a vehicle. It is further particularly believed that there has never heretofore been provided an apparatus for increasing the useful volume of a lavatory, particularly one found onboard an aircraft.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a hinged door mechanism which will lay flush against the surrounding enclosure when the room is in its unoccupied position but which may be readjusted to increase the available space within the room when the room is occupied.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a hinged door assembly which will expand and contract the useful volume of a lavatory.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a lavatory such as may be used on board an aircraft having a hinged door assembly which closes flush with the door when the door is in its unoccupied configuration and which may be repositioned to increase the available lavatory space when the lavatory is in its occupied configuration.